*Warning There are Spoilers*
As someone who really went down the rabbit hole when watching the Sopranos, I was looking forward to any new insights that this prequel could reveal. There is a lot of good material from the show, for digging into the formation of Tony Soprano. In the show, we see that Tony’s mother has obviously had a deep affect on him. Despite dying fairly early on, she comes up throughout the show in his psychoanalysis. She was someone who he desperately sought to please, but who was constantly making him feel inadequate.
The revelation in “The Many Saints of New York” is that Tony’s mother has been having mood swings since he was a child. Others in the mafia noticed how her behavior was negatively affecting the family, and a doctor suggested she go on medication.
Tony’s father spent time in jail, and during that time Tony may have become closer to his mother.
Tony did not seem close to his father. His real mentor growing up was Christopher Moltisanti’s father, Dickie Moltisanti.
His own father was a violent man, who was most likely violent and threatening towards his mother. In a particularly demented scene, when his mother and his father are in the car together and his father is becoming frustrated by his mother, his father shoots his mother (seemingly in the head). It turns out, he shot a bullet through her big hair, to silence her.
Tony’s mentor figure was a violent man as well, it just does not seem that young Tony was completely exposed to his violence. Dickie was charming, and had a degree of humanity to him. He could not tolerate finding out that his father was abusing his new wife, so he took matters into his own hands. He treated an African American colleague respectfully, whereas other members of the mafia were racist. He was sweet to young Tony, and let him tag along with him in his non-violent business. Though, young Tony was always very attentive to the grown-up conversation related to the business, so it would only be a matter of time before he figured out the violent side.
We also find out, from a school guidance counselor, that Tony had a high IQ and leadership skills as a child, although he did not apply himself in school. By that time, he was already starting to get in trouble with friends. He was on the football team, but perhaps did not have the chops to make it in football long-term. We thus see how the family business was actually a good fit for him.
There are so many aspects of the Sopranos that I remember being fascinating. Something that particularly stuck with me was how dispensable certain women were for the main characters. There were the women that were put on a pedestal- the wives, and then there were the mistresses (goomars)and the women who worked at the strip club where they would hold meetings.
The wife was for appearances. She had to be Italian or Italian American. She was the mother of their children, the nurturer, and the cook. These women may have been long-suffering, like Carmella, but they, for-the-most-part, escaped alive. The other women are the ones to often fall victim to the hyper-macho violence of these men.
I feel like these women are kind of innocent bystanders that get caught in the cross-fire. For the men in the mafia, killing is a part of business. I don’t see how killing women who work in the strip club would be good for business. I also don’t see how killing their goomar would be rational.
It’s tragic because these are women that have been through a lot already. & They are so marginalized that society will probably not pay as much attention to their disappearance. That is what I reflected about, when Dickie murdered his goomar. I also thought about how we grow so close to these characters that we almost forget that they are psychopaths.
